Feb. 3, 2003 Gull watchers love shad die offs. It seems certain species of shad are affected by water temperature. Studies on these fish, especially Gizzard Shad, show that they cannot metabolize fat below a water temp of 39 degrees. The dead shad have fat reserves on their bodies but it is useless to them in that state. Like birds in migration that run out of fat reserves, their bodies look for energy in other areas such as muscle tissue and internal organs such as kidneys, livers, etc. The only way shad can make it through these periods is to utilize their organs for basal metabolism. Those shad washed up on the shore would show signs in these organs of emaciation but have fat layers on their bodies. Again only the fittest survive, the gulls get to eat in hard times and we birders get to feast on gulls concentrated in great numbers. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================